Life in the Stocks
by DairyMilk123
Summary: -"This is becoming a regular thing for you eh Merlin!" -"Shut up, Gwaine" Merlin mumbled his reply. Still, third time this week. Even he had to admit there was some truth to it. -"Tell me, how can you manage to piss off the princess this much? I mean, I consider myself quite gifted at this sort of thing but you? You're meant to be the sensible one!" CRACK FIC! no slash! Enjoy!


**Hello! This is just a little crack fic really based on a quote challenge! A Great way to mourn the loss of an epic tv show… **

**DISCLAIMER; due to unfortunate circumstances I don't own Merlin and if I did it would have ended very differently!**

Power is a life. It is a force that grows from the earth itself. It cannot be created or destroyed. It cannot be faked or designed. It is an energy that always has been, and always will be. Its' fire can warp those too weak to control it. It can burn the minds of the strongest men. It can strike fear into the hearts of warriors and tear down the sturdiest battlements.

Yet power is not evil. It is not malicious. It is not cruel. It is but a force. An idea. An idea that has so much _Life_ behind it, it becomes real. It becomes so real that you begin to sense it, feel it,_ See_ it. You can see the sheer energy of the Earth's core. That my friends, is Magic.

Power lay in the stone walls. The stone grew from the earth shaping itself into impenetrable turrets. The walls scraped the warm sky. Power flowed from the castle like a river. Everybody could feel the energy, yet only those with deep secrets knew of it. The boy could feel it. He had always felt it.

The wind captured the red cape of the guard as he led the raven haired boy down the stone steps.

-"This is becoming a regular thing for you eh Merlin!"

-"Shut up, Gwaine" Merlin mumbled his reply. Still, third time this week. Even he had to admit there was some truth to it.

-"Tell me, how can you manage to piss off the princess this much? I mean, I consider myself quite gifted at this sort of thing but you? You're meant to be the sensible one!"

-"Magic" Merlin replied grinning to himself.

Gwaine let out a bark of laughter. It bounced around the deserted corridors. "If that were true there'd be something a lot sharper than wood on your neck."

Merlin flinched internally. Images of his first few moments in this legendary citadel flashed across his eyes. A young man. An iron axe. A distraught mother. Blood. So much blood…..

-"So what did you do this time? Forget to give him his teddy bear before he went to beddy byes?"

Merlin couldn't help but grin as the new image invaded his mind. "No, not this time"

Gwaine smirked. "Then what?"

-"I may have called him fat…. Again…"

Gwaine came to quite an abrupt halt. He turned to look at the bedraggled manservant. "You called him fat?"

-"Well I didn't so much as actually say it, more of implied it…."

-"Oh this is brilliant"

-"No it isn't!" Merlin turned to look at his friend. Gwaine was full on in stitches now. "This is the third time I've been in the stocks in five days. I do everything for that prat and this is the thanks I get! I've-….." Merlin's mouth snapped shut. His eyes dropped as he realised what he'd been saying. What he was about to say.

"What?" Gwaine asked, suddenly worried for his friend.

-"It's nothing. It's my fault. I should have just brought him his stupid sausages." Merlin grinned at the knight. An automatic defence mechanism. Gwaine didn't buy it. Not for a second.

-"No" the knight stopped walking. Merlin tripped, stumbling over the long cape. "Your right."

-"Excuse m- What?" Merlin had been called a lot of things in his lifetime. Idiot, stupid,clotpole. Powerful, saviour, brave. But never 'right'.

-"Your right. You do everything for that ungrateful princess. You tend to his every thought and need. You follow him to the ends of the earth without a scrap of armour. You stick by him even when he's being a complete idiot, and what thanks do you get? None. Only more orders, more demands, more chains. I've seen you running about like a headless chicken. Sometimes you look so exhausted you can barely stand up straight. But you still stick with him." Gwaines anger poured from him like an unending river of pent up pain. Merlin just stared in horror.

-"Look at you. You're being punished because he wanted sausages. SAUSAGES! Do you not see what he's doing to you?"

Merlin looked down at the chains encircling his wrists. They weren't really necessary, Merlin knew that. Only to stop his hands slipping from the stocks. If he squeezed his hands small enough they'd probably fall off. "He's the King…"

-"HE'S YOUR FRIEND!"

Merlin couldn't meet Gwaines eyes. He'd never seen his friend this furious. He seemed to glow with it. The power of a single feeling, filling him to the upmost.

-"It's my duty" Merlin muttered. What else could he say?

Gwaine punched the wall in desperation. "Your worth more than this Merlin. You're too loyal to him. Stupidly loyal. It's going to get you killed."

Merlin grinned. It almost had, too many times. Poisoned. Stabbed. Tortured. Captured. Accused. Blamed. The list was endless. All for his friend. Even Merlin couldn't blame the Dragon for that. Some of his traits were purely his own faults. "I'd do the same for you, you know . And so would you. It's in the knights code. "

-"Yes Merlin, But you're not a knight."

-"I'm a friend."

Gwaine stared at the scrawny boy standing in front of him. His black hair curtained the top of his forehead. His abnormally large ears stuck out like tiny wings. His thin limbs were completely out of proportion to his body. He looked like an overgrown child. Yet his eyes…. Gwaine had always been fascinated by those royal blue eyes. It was one of the things that had drawn him to Merlin in the first place.

They say that eyes could tell stories. Stories that no amount of words could ever tell. Gwaine had always been sceptical about superstition, but with Merlin…. His eyes were so deep, so intriguing. The knight was helpless when he looked into them. He saw so many emotions, some he had no name for. Pain and fear were strongly masked by courage and determination. A sense of power rested deep inside the blue mirrors. It was deep but it shone out like a beacon, weighing down Merlins words. How had Gwaine not seen it before? But there was something else. Something hidden behind the fear... Something strong that it made the courage stronger. Something secret.

Gwaine sighed, exasperated by the argument. "And so we're back where we started. You're a riddle Merlin" he said, punching the boy in the arm.

Merlin chuckled, the tension lifted like a balloon in that single action. Gwaine was back. "I prefer to think of myself as an enigma…"

"Idiot. I could write a book about you."

"You? Write? Gwaine, the only word you know how to spell is tavern…"

"Nonsense! Fine then… A children's book! About an elephant, with stupidly big ears who wanted to find a place in the world!"

"Why am I an elephant?"

"Because can you imagine a flying, big eared giraffe? No, it'd be stupid. And I'd be your little mouse friend who guided you along!"

"Gwaine, just how much have you been drinking today?" Merlin gazed at his friend who had just started humming….

The two men stepped out into the sun that bathed the stone courtyard. Already, quite a considerable throng of people had gathered in front of the wooden stocks. Baskets of weaponry at the ready. Merlin scowled. Gwaine laughed.

"Seriously you'd think these people would have something better to do than throwing food at the same bloke for 3 hours…"

"Ah, nobody could get tired of you Merlin!" replied Gwaine, opening the wooden frame. "You know…. I think this wood is becoming moulded to your arms…"

"Oh, shut up…" Merlin leant over into the familiar stocks.

Gwaine chuckled. "You have fun now Merlin!" The lock clicked into place. Merlin looked up (Well as much as he could.) Gwaine wasn't walking back to the castle. He was walking to the front.

"Tears shed for another man are not a sign of weakness you know they are a sign of the pure at heart!" yelled Merlin. It didn't take Druid telepathy to see what was on Gwaines mind. The flying elephant could have seen it.

"Wow! Merlin that was deep." Gwaine mocked a bow to the boy in the stocks. He knew, without his mind knowing, that Merlin was wise. Merlin had always been wise, even when he was acting stupid, there was an air of power about him. "All part of the riddle" he muttered.

Gwaine picked up a particularly hairy looking tomato. The raven haired boy did not look vulnerable. He did not look scared. He did not look weak. Even stuck in the most humiliating of places, Gwaine still saw Merlin smile. He saw that courage that always shone from those piercing eyes. He felt the energy that the boy carried. It infected those around him. Gwaine glanced around. Even the women looked upon the chained boy with a sort of fondness. A protectiveness. It seemed that everybody felt the boys energy. His power.

Gwaine hurled the furry tomato at Merlin. It exploded in a shower of red rain and slime inches above the boy's face. Tears of laughter streamed down his cheeks. "I can see why they don't get bored of this you know!"

Merlin barely had time to grimace at the knight before trying in futile to dodge the torrent of flying vegetables soaring towards his head.

Sometimes, power choses to hide inside the hearts of men. Sometimes, it peeps out and people sense it. Sometimes, power chooses to be harsh. People fear it. Other times, its kind. The energy it omits is silent, yet people feel it. They can even see it. But they do not know it. A force, an idea is powerful, but only to those wise enough to use it.

**What do you think!? I haven't wrote any Gwaine fics so I thought I'd give it a go! I should probably mention I don't own Dumbo either…..**

**This was a quote challenge fic. ****"Tears shed for another man are not a sign of weakness." ****I wanted to do something a bit different to the more obvious idea of somebody crying over death…. Did it work!?**

**Please comment and let me know what you think. I have a tiny idea niggling at the back of my mind for another chapter or two for this but I won't unless people ask. **

**Thanks to SereneMayhem for the quote! Please drop me a comment! I'll give you cookies! They spur me on! Thank you!**


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